


Training Grounds (OLD)

by readytobakebread



Series: Training Grounds [1]
Category: Slugterra
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence- Twist, Eventual Fluff, Kidnapping, M/M, Named Twist, Original Characters - Freeform, There'll be plenty of cuddling eventually, i tried my best on a summary, idk how to tag properly, ill add more tags later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2020-06-23 13:59:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19702795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readytobakebread/pseuds/readytobakebread
Summary: Eli Shane thought he knew just about everything about Slugterra. However after a near death experience, he's now tied to a side of Slugterra few Shanes ever discover.Note: This is an old version. See chapters 5 and 6 for details.





	1. Consider This A Prologue

Eli POV

It’s been two years since we defeated Tad, son of Dr. Blakk. The caverns have been at peace since. Trixie’s in college studying to be a director. Kord is helping rebuild the beast forge. Pronto helps Kord out at the forge sometimes. Though I think Trixie and Kord convinced him to do that so I could learn to live on my own. I appreciate it. It's nice to have some alone time now that I’m almost eighteen. 

It’s early in the morning as I ride to town to return my library books before I head out on patrol. It’s not long before I get there. I park on the curb and hop up the stairs to the door. Grabbing the handle, I tug to open it. Except that it doesn't budge. I must be early again. I sit down and pull a history book out of my bag and reread the interesting parts from it. 

After five minutes of mindlessly reading, someone else shows up. A guy around my age comes up to try the door. It didn’t move this time either. He turns and sits down next to me with a disappointed look on his face. We sit like this for a short while until a small Fandango wiggles out of his bag. Quietly, he says to the slug, “Hey Peter.”

I chuckle under my breath. “Peter?”

He nods. “What’s wrong with Peter?”

“Nothing. I’ve just never heard of slug names like Peter.”

“What kinda ‘normal slug names’ have you heard of then?” He said with finger quotes.

“Y’know, like Spinner for Arachnets, Rocky for Hoprocks. Names like that.”

He laughed in a really sleepy kind of way. Like when you’re too tired to process the world. “And I thought my naming skills were bad!? Did you just name them after their abilities or something?”

I turn my head towards him, “Well, if you're so good at names,” I leaned forward slightly, “then why don't you tell me yours?”

That seemed to catch him off guard. He stumbled around for some words.  
“Oh uh. Anthony. My name’s Anthony.”

Before I can say anything else, the door behind us opens. We both turn and look up to see the librarian, Emily.

“Well, you both sure are here early. Come on in.” she tells us. Anthony and I follow her inside. 

Once all three of us were inside, I followed Emily to the counter to check my books in.

As I’m walking out, I notice Anthony in the fiction section. He looked up from the book he was looking at. I wave at him. He seemed almost surprised. He did a little wave and began browsing the shelves again. 

Anthony and I’d see each other often after that. I'd see him in the mornings mostly. But eventually I’d begin to see him more outside of the library. The reasons why though, I would never have guessed.


	2. Chapter 2

-Anthony POV-

“C’mon man, please.”

“No, I need to go to work.” This kid. Mikey. He has been trying to get me talk to his ‘Boss’ for weeks.

“They just wanna talk,” he says just like every other time he’s come to my apartment.

“I just want to live my life, not talk to a damn crime boss!” I respond just like every other time he’s come to my apartment.

“Dude just do it. It won't be good for either of us if you don’t.”

“You said that last time. Go away.” 

“But-”

“Go. Away.” I quickly close door a little louder than I meant to. Roommate one out of two, Felicia, looks up from her homework. 

“Mikey again?” She asks.

“Who else? We have no friends.”

She chuckled. “True. Also you’re late for your shift.”

“Shit!” Damnit Mikey. 

“Watch your language young man!”

I rush out the door to the (thankfully) vacant hallway and make my way to work.

-3rd Person POV -

It was dark outside when Anthony left work. The streets were the usual quiet. Not a soul in sight. There didn't seem to be anything different. 

There was something different though. Someone watching him, hiding in the shadows. The figure didn't move. Not until Anthony walked by the figure's dark alley. They fired their blaster. A Neotox hit velocity with muffled sound, expelling its gas. The fumes seized his body. He looked for an escape but couldn't move himself to try. Within seconds, his body turned a sickeningly pale green. The figure walked towards him. His eyes began to grow heavy. His conscious faded away. The stranger swiftly picked him up and disappeared into the shadows.

-Anthony POV-

My body aches. I feel like fuck ton of Grimmstones have slammed into me. My head is pounding. I begin to move but I can't. My arms are tied behind me. My legs are bound together. My mouth is gagged. I whip open my eyes only to find that I can't. 

Looks like I've been kidnapped. Again.

I faintly hear a door open from my left. Two, maybe three, people walk in judging from the sound of the footsteps. One comes closer to me.

Let's get this over with.

With a forceful yank, the blindfold is taken and my vision returns. I'm in a small dank room. There are boxes and crates littered around me. A storage room it seems. I'm tied to one of the poles in the room. Not a bad choice. Exhausts one of my escape options. 

The guy who took the blindfold (and gag) off is staring at me. What? Does he expect me to be all like, ‘Oh Mr. Kidnapper, why am I here? Let me go! I'll do whatever you want!’ Fuck no. I stare back to make him uncomfortable. 

“You were a hard one to find.” He finally says.

“I make an effort.” I reply. 

“All to be expected from Blakk’s right hand-” Ah, so that's what all of this is about. “-, the great Twist. Though it seems you go by a different alias. ‘Anthony’."

“You mean my fucking birth name?” I'm getting real sick of this guy.

He rolled his eyes. “You seem surprisingly calm for someone who’s just been kidnapped.”

“You seem like a bitch.” I got a slap for that one. I don't regret it

“What an excellent bitch slap. Only the finest bitches can muster a slap of that caliber” I got a kick in the torso for that one. He is going to hate me and I’m thriving on that.

I should probably explain why I’m so calm. When I was working for Blakk, a lot of thugs and criminals thought that if they kidnapped me and held a ransom they would get a lot of money. Spoiler warning! They didn’t. Blakk saw this as a minor nuisance and left me to deal with it on my own. None of this fazes me much anymore.

Mr. Kidnapper quickly regained his composure. “You're probably wondering why you are here?”

“Actually I was thinking about how your bald head is reflecting the lights.” It is honestly quite fun to watch. I bet he buffs it out every morning till it shines.

He shot me a disgusted look. The walking disco ball began to pace in front of me. “My boss has some questions regarding Blakk Industries and her properties. Mainly the locations of storehouses and depots. And” He dramatically turns his head towards me, “the ghouling process.”

“Hell no.” That information, especially about making ghouls, could hurt a lot of people. I refuse to be the cause of all that again. 

“Its funny how you think you have a choice.”

“Funny how you think I'll actually cooperate.”

“We'll see about that.” He a step closer and bends down to put the gag back on. 

“Kinky but alright.” I quickly say. He looks like he's about to fucking murder me. He puts the gag on and turns to leave.

“Watch him you two. He's a slippery one.” He tells to Mikey and the other guard. He opens the door with a swish and leaves.

And with the close of the door Mikey lets out a small snort. The other guard gently elbows him. Mikey coughed to suppress his laughter. Though, still trying to hide a small playful smile. As annoying as he can be, he kinda reminds me of myself when I was fifteen, working for Blakk. Playful and joking around. But still just doing as told in hopes of what you’re doing will pay off in the end and make your life better. But in this line of work, it rarely does. Nothing I did under Blakk did me any good. The innocent people, the slugs. What. What I did to Eli. To the Unbeatable Master. None of it paid off in the end. All that was left was pain and regret.

I’m brought out of my thoughts by the opening of the door. The walking disco ball waltz back in with a new face following. He tells Mikey and the other guard to leave. Once they left, he turned and came closer to me.

“Well Anthony, since you refuse to cooperate peacefully, it seems as though we will have to try other ways to get what we want out of you.” He said with a twinkle in his eye.

This is going to be a long night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (RH is the bald guy from the last chapter. I haven't thought of a good name for him yet.)

It had been hours since RH had begun to forcefully interrogate Anthony. Punch and kick after punch and kick. He still refused to tell them anything. However, Anthony was at his rope’s end. Every movement hurt. Every inch of him ached. Anthony wasn’t sure what to do. His captors never left the room unattended so somehow managing to escape was impossible. If he gives them what they want, their “Boss” could learn how to create ghouls and a lot of people could get hurt in the crossfire. If he stays quiet and refuses to say anything, he could end up being killed. And even though he would never admit it aloud, he was scared. So Anthony took the only option he truly had.

He gave in.

He told them what they wanted to know. At least, what he could remember after having the shit beat out of him. As he answered their questions, the two interrogators took notes. Writing down the answers and adding locations to a map. Anthony wasn’t happy about having to comply but what else can you do in this situation? The only way he thought he could justify having to do this was by leveling the playing field. Making the game even. By giving all of this information, to Eli Shane.

When the two had gotten everything they wanted out of Anthony, RH took the notes to a guard outside the room. When the guard returned, she nodded at RH and left. He motioned to the other captor. They promptly loaded a Neotox into their blaster and fired at Anthony. Before he knew it, the fumes took effect and his consciousness left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I didn't feel like writing the rest of this so I'm just gonna tell you what happened next. M'kay? Cool. So Anthony is just dropped off in the alley he was kidnapped from. His roommates later find him and get him back to their apartment and bandage him up and stuff because he's really beaten up and out of it. A few days later when he's not out of it anymore, he puts all the info he gave the RH (/the crime organization he works for) onto a map w/ a lot more info on it (since he doesn't quite remember what he told them). He sneaks into Eli's bag the next morning at the library. Then we're at chapter 4.
> 
> Also, I want to talk about what Training Grounds is. Aside from it being a fanfic, I'm using it as a "training grounds" to work on my writing and planning skills. So in summary because I don't want to make this super long, the quality of my writing might not be the best but that's the whole point. But you can expect good things from my storyline. (I'm v proud of what I have planned so far). And feel free to give constructive criticism or ask questions (pls)!


	4. Chapter 4

(Make sure you read the first part of my end notes from the last chapter! Thank you!)

You would have probably expected me to have found that map the moment I rode off. I didn't. In my defense, it was wedged behind Lucky’s ear really well. Plus, patrol gets super boring so naturally I wasn't paying attention. 

Regardless, the map was a surprise. Burpy found it when he woke up. We'd been riding for a few hours by then. Just cruising through the silence of the lone roads weaving around ravines and cliffs with my thoughts and anxieties towering over me. 

Anyway… a while later, after Burpy and a few others woke up, they found that map I had mentioned. It was a map of the whole 99. Normal enough right? But the thing had writing over every inch of it. Dozens of Blakk’s warehouses and ghoul depots ranging from each corner of the West. His Lumino mines, and even the Citadel were marked. There was messy handwritten notes telling what was where and what was kept there. The notes seemed fresh. Maybe a day or two old. It's just kinda weird the timing of it all? The crime networks in certain caverns have been growing restless since Blakk Industries fell out of power. It would make sense that Blakk would have done illegal business with the crime bosses and gangsters who basically run those caverns. Without Blakk around and with a Shane keeping the peace, they must be starting to lose influence.

Looking at this map, a can't help but smile. “You guys up for some fun?” I ask my slugs. They enthusiastically agree. I turn my attention back to the map. “So we’re in Spire Peak cavern right here,” I point to our location on the map, “And the closest place is riiiiiii-” My voice draws the word out as I move my finger to the mark, “-iight here. Not too far away.” It was a warehouse on the outskirts of the jungle caverns.

(Line break)

The warehouse is covered in vines and plants. It looks like nobody has been here for years. Perfect. I park my mecha near the entrance and hop off. My slugs excitedly take their place in their tubes with Burpy taking his spot on my shoulder. I clear the brambles off the door and wedge it open and step inside. It’s dark and musty. Burpy lights a fire on his head. There are shelves lined with ghoul canisters and boxes littering the floor.The ceiling has many metal beams and what looks like some used to be hanging lights. Using Burpy as a light source, I walked around the room till I came across another door, which led to a hallway with some large computer screens. I move to the end of the corridor and walk into the main room. Like the first room, the ceiling was tall with plenty of beams and broken lights. At least I think. It's really dark up there. On ground level, there's knocked over carts with old ghoul tubes spilled everywhere. Large ghouling machines line the walls. 

However, as I was walking towards the machines, blaster fire fills my ears. Before I have time to reach for my blaster, the paralyzing fumes of a Neotox makes its way into my lungs. My vision begins to blacken as my skin stiffens. Within seconds, my consciousness blinks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so slightly unfortunate news. I'm going to have to take a small break before I can get chapter 5 out. I need to organize the plot. I am also back in school so I won't have as much time to write (which is why it took me so long to get this chapter out).
> 
> Never fear! This fic is still going to be written and completed. I hope you'll stick around till the end because I have some big things planned for Training Grounds.


	5. Not A Real Chapter

So I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I have decided discontinue this version of Training Grounds. The good news is that I'm rewriting Training Grounds where the plot makes far more sense in terms of the flow order of events and what I need to happen in order to initiate 'X' event. Because like here I go from Early morning library talks to straight up kidnapping and implied torture with absolutely no transition whatsoever. It just caused so many issues.

But because I'm a nice person to people who are not fictional, I'll tell you guys about the changes to the beginning and a small bit about the old chapter 5.

So instead of starting at the library, a place that they never go back to, its gonna start at The Coffee Shop (that is the actual name of it. "the coffee shop") which is where Anth works and is a pretty big part of the story. Starting here means I can easily introduce the Callaways (Anth's found family), Dana Por, and Felicia Callaway/Young as Trixie's college dorm mate which helps make old ch 8 less awkward, etc. Its also just fun too. Late night coffee shop antics. Sign me up.

In the old chapter 5, what had happened with Anthony had similarly happened to Eli. Except with Eli, it was sorta like a "Well here's the Shane. Might as well kidnap him and try to kill him for no reason other than to get him out of my way for my own personal gain and conquest." And that's all I'm sayin' right now ;)

Also, other than being a way to practice my writing skills, Training Grounds will tie up most loose ends left in the show. Like Will Shane, Junjie, Tad, the eastern caverns, exploring the tensions between Eli and the Shadow Clan, Twist (obviously), and some of the major villains.

All in all, I'm hoping to get the new chapter 1 up by Feb. 14, 2020. Thank you all for being patient.

Edit: I may end up pushing chapter 1 back a bit and write a Juneli high school au short story for valentine's day instead.

(Also if anyone has any ideas for coffee shop antics comment them!! (It can be just Eli and Anth or it can be with the staff too) You can comment even if chapter 1 is up already. I'll more than likely (very likely) write it anyway!!! Also while I'm at it, I will take any and all slugterra writing requests. It doesn't have to be Training Grounds. Thank you!!)


	6. i felt bad that i havent given an update on the rewrite so i wrote an update at 1 am. Then my computer died and I had to redo it ;-;  (the rewrite is leagues better and im excited to show it off)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cw for mild swearing

so I know its been awhile but I just wanted to pop in and let y'all know that I've finally gotten my shit together and the new Training Grounds rewrite is in the works. I'm aiming to get at least chapter 1 out by the end of June. There's a few plot details I have to get hammered at before i can start writing. But yeah. Just wanted to give a small update since its been nothing but radio silence from me. The new version will be under the same name "Training Grounds" and the same description likely. So see y'all then.


End file.
